Holy
Week 33 A.D.
By
Rev. Dave Kulchar
In
the study of the events of Holy Week, it can be confusing trying to
reconcile the Gospel accounts of the timing of the events of Jesus'
last week in Jerusalem. Several assumptions shaped by church
tradition and practice added to this confusion. So in an attempt to
understand and experience a historical and Biblical flow of this
incredible week it seems right to begin by examining the Post-Exilic
observance of the Feast of Unleavened Bread or "Pesach"
(Passover).
This
feast is a seven day festival falling on the first full moon after
the vernal or spring equinox (this is important because it will set
the calendar so the year and date of the events of Holy Week can be
determined). This feast is the first and most important of the three
great festivals of Israel. It helps Jews recount God's deliverance
of His people from bondage. The paschal meal or Seder, the central
event of this festival, was celebrated on the evening of the 14th of
Nisan with the following seven day feast of unleavened bread observed
by the children of Israel (Leviticus 23:4-5). This was a period of
family gathering, remembrance, meals, offering of special sacrifices
and additional ritual worship. During the entire feast normal work
patterns were reduced, no leavened bread was made or eaten and two
special days of rest were observed.
The
first day of the feast, the 15th of Nisan, is marked by worship and
the gathering of the nation called a "convocation" or
"sacred assemble". No work is done on this first day, a
sabbath is observed and special sacrifices are made in thanksgiving
for the nation's deliverance. The last day of the feast is observed
in a similar fashion while the intervening days are marked with fewer
sacrifices and yet limited activities called "half-holy days".
The
first day of the feast begins on the night of the 14th of Nisan with
the meal. This night is the actual time of Passover events described
in Exodus 12:6. In the Hebrew reckoning of days the new day begins
at sunset. Hence, the meal is the initial celebration of the first
day of the feast. This pattern of marking of days beginning at
sunset was later mirrored by the early church which began its Easter
celebration with the Easter Vigil on Saturday night at sunset.
Preparations for the Passover meal of remembrance could take several
days but an official period of preparation began the evening of the
13th of Nissan through the full day of the 14th. The "Day of
Preparation" therefore spans two days which is important to
remember when reckoning the Gospel accounts of Holy Week.
The
Day of Preparation begins on the evening of the 13th when the house
is cleaned of leavened bread. The head of the family ritualistically
searches the whole house by candlelight and the leavened bread is
consumed, sold, or burned by morning. The paschal lamb is killed in
this period as well, but not till the evening sacrifice of the 14th.
The
year old lamb was to serve a company not less than 10 and no more
than 20 because it must be totally consumed at the paschal meal. A
representative of the company takes the lamb to the temple on the day
of preparation at the evening sacrifice (normally 2:30 in the
afternoon) and offers the blood, the fat and other parts as a
sacrifice on the temple altar only an hour later. The butchered lamb
was then taken home at dark and roasted. Great care is taken to keep
the meat pure and no bone of it was to be broken. When the lamb had
been roasted the meal of remembrance begins.
According
to John 19:31, in reference to the timing of Jesus death on the
cross, the apostle wrote:
"Now
it was the day of preparation, and the next day was to be a special
Sabbath."
This
description, "a special Sabbath", meant that the Feast of
Unleavened bread, a movable feast according to the phases of the
moon, would have to start on a Saturday, the Jewish day of rest and
worship. Because this is an astronomically calculable event, one can
mark back the time in the Jewish calendar to the time of Christ and
observe which years during His life that the 15th of Nisan fell on
the Sabbath. Using Stephen P. Morse Jewish calendar calculator
(www.stevenmorse.org)
for the years between 28 A.D. and 37 A.D. (a reasonable period of
estimating Christ's death), one can observe the following facts in
this period (the years 3788 to 3797according to the Jewish calendar):
6
times Pesach started on a Tuesday
1
time on a Sunday
2
times on a Thursday (30 A.D. and 37 A.D.)
2
times on a Saturday or Sabbath (33 A.D. and 36 A.D.)
This
means that to fit into John's description of the timing of holy week,
Jesus must have died in the years 33 or 36. A case for 36 A.D. is
weakened because we know from other historical writings that Pilate
was called back to Rome in 36 A.D. and Herod Antipas was preoccupied
that year with a regional conflict with the Nabateans. These facts
makes it improbable that either or both of them were in Jerusalem if
Holy Week took place in 36 A.D.. Even if they were present that year
this would leave little time for the two to have had any additional
friendly relations after the events of Holy Week as indicated in
Luke 23:12 since Pilate would in short order return to Rome.
The
arguments for 33 A.D. are much stronger as one attempts to date
Jesus' death according to other evidence in the Scriptures. Luke
remarks that Jesus was "thirty years of age" when he began
his ministry (Luke 3:23). A close examination of synoptics seem to
indicate that Jesus' ministry lasted at least three years.
Significant Biblical scholars believe that Jesus was born 3-2 B.C..
Herod the Great died in 1 B.C.. This means Jesus begins His
ministry around 29 A.D.. This then means Jesus was 34 to 35 years
old when he died in 33 A.D.. (Note: There is no year "0"
in the B.C. to A.D. transition, therefore one loses a year in the
counting of age.) This, of course, strongly supports a 33 A.D.
dating.
On
first reading the synoptic accounts of Holy Week, there seems to be a
discrepancy in the description of events. Matthew, Mark and Luke all
report that Thursday is the "first day of the Feast of
Unleavened Bread" when the disciples meet in the upper room for
the first time (i.e. Mark 14:12). Also many in contemporary
Christian culture, because Jesus remarks "I have eagerly
desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer", teach
that Jesus was celebrating the "Seder" meal with them that
evening. This would suggest that he initiated the meal of the new
covenant in the midst of the Seder meal.
We
must keep in mind that all
the
events of the feast make up the Passover remembrance. The term
"first day" is the 13th Nisan beginning with the search for
the leavened bread. In Mark 14 the gospeler comments that this
"first day" is when it is "customary to sacrifice the
Passover lamb" which meant this was the day of preparation.
Jesus had made arrangements for the disciples to celebrate the
Passover which was over a week long. He chose a location in
Jerusalem itself, in a second story guest room located near the
Temple. Jesus appears to demonstrate a "word of knowledge"
that the disciples will find the proprietor of the upper room
carrying a pitcher of water, which is typically a woman's task, in
Mark 14:13. At sunset Thursday night Jesus gathers with his disciples
as the day of preparation begins. The first action of the Passover
remembrance is to search for and consume all leavened bread. In
Jesus' mind, and the minds of the disciples, this is the beginning of
the Passover experience. It was tradition that the eldest son would
fast on the day of preparation until the Passover meal on the evening
of Nisan 14. Jesus eats the bread and drinks the wine initiating a
new covenant meal and then begins his fast.
Imagine
now in an atmosphere of preparing the upper room for the Paschal meal
and for the week of subsequent feasting and celebration that Jesus
prepares them in a humble act of serving them by washing their feet.
One can envision in this ceremonial washing Jesus' actions alluding
to the second major sacrament of the church, water baptism. In his
washing his disciple's feet Jesus was not just cleaning their bodies
but their very souls.
One
might argue that with the room being prepared for the Passover meal,
Jesus might have celebrated the "Seder" early, but the
central symbol, the lamb, would not have been sacrificed yet. It
seems likely that preparations for the meal to be held on the
following evening were being made, the table set, and the other
symbols except for the lamb were gathered. John even suggests that
some thought that when Judas left during the meal he went to purchase
items needed for the feast, when actually he went out to meet with
the Jewish authorities to betray Jesus (John 13:29). Assumptions
about Judas' leaving infers that the meal they were about to
partake Thursday night was not the Seder meal, but the evening meal
of the first day or preparation day when the leavened bread is
consumed.
We
also know that early Friday, the Jewish leaders did not want to enter
the Roman garrison, for fear of being made "unclean" and
therefore unable to "eat" the Passover meal which they
would have been partaking of that evening, Friday the 14th of Nisan
(John 18:28).
For
those who might insist that Maundy Thursday night was the Passover
Meal, this would mean that Friday was the 15th of Nisan. This did
not occur during the years Jesus might have been executed (see list
above). In the end, the timing of John's account collaborates with
the Jewish calendar and the synoptics' description of Thursday being
the "day of preparation." At first it appears that the
synoptic accounts conflict with John's claim when John reports that
Friday was the "day of preparation" (John 14:19), but
remember this Jewish "day" overlaps Thursday night and
Friday daylight hours. Thus, in 33 A.D. with the 15th of Nisan
falling on a sabbath, the day of preparation took place Thursday
night and Friday daylight, and all four Gospel accounts line up.
Several
other interesting events line up with the dating of the week in this
manner. On the "Great Sabbath" which is the Sabbath before
the feast begins, worshipers read from Malachi 3:6-4:6 which reminds
them to be pure before the Lord, follow Moses' teaching (which
includes keeping the Passover) and to give tithes and offerings to
God. On this Sabbath day they were instructed on how to observe the
feast in the coming days. This "Great Sabbath" would have
been Saturday the 8th of Nisan in 33 A.D. (see chart below). One
could presume that Jesus and his disciples who were on route to
Jerusalem, would honor the Sabbath and not travel on this day. Then
"six days before Passover" ( John 12:1) they arrived in
Bethany and had dinner with Mary, Martha and Lazarus whom he had
raised from the dead. This would have been Sunday the 9th of Nisan.
This dating means that Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem was
really "Palm Monday". One might be tempted to be
disappointed upon the discovery that this dating challenges the
widely held tradition of a "Palm Sunday" entrance into
Jerusalem. Disappointment is short lived when one sees that in 33
A.D. Monday was the 10th of Nisan. This day holds significant
Biblical meaning in the celebration of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
In
Exodus 12:3 the Lord instructed the Jews to select an unblemished
lamb to be the "Korban Pesach" or Passover Lamb on the
10th day of the first month. In the Lord's perfect timing then on
Monday the 10th of Nisan in 33 A.D. each family was selecting a lamb
from surrounding flocks. This very day Jesus is selected by the
multitude and hailed as the King of the Jews. It is noteworthy to
remember that Bethlehem, Jesus' birthplace, was where many of the
flocks for sacrifice where pastured. Jesus, the Lamb of God from
Bethlehem, is chosen by the multitude's acclamations as the Messiah,
the anointed or "chosen one". Little did they know that
Jesus was being chosen by them to be "the perfect sacrifice",
selected to die for the sins of the whole world. Even one of Jesus'
enemies would unwittingly say "You do not realize that it is
better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole
nation
perish."
(John 11:50)
During
the feast the selected lamb is then presented four days later for
sacrifice on 14th of Nisan and it blood is poured out in remembrance
of its substitutionary death on behalf of the first born of Israel.
The killing of the lamb normally took place at the time of the daily
evening sacrifice (2:30p.m.) but in 33 A.D. the lambs were offered 2
hours earlier. This was the practice when the feast began on a
Sabbath so as to avoid a needless breach of the Sabbath prohibitions.
The
earliest written gospel reported that Jesus was nailed to the cross
around 9 a.m. on Friday (Mark 15:25). Mark records his nailing
occurred at the "third hour" which is counted from sunrise,
approximately 6 a.m.. All three synoptics report that at "about
the sixth hour, darkness came over the whole land until the ninth
hour (Luke 23:44)." Thus, at the very time, 12:30 p.m., the
lambs were killed and their blood, fat and entrails offered an hour
later on the altar, Jesus was dying on the cross outside the city
walls of the Holy City. There must have been some commotion in the
temple when darkness fell at mid-day just as the lambs were being
brought to be sacrificed. Then a short time later when the blood and
entrails were being offered, the veil into the Holy of Holies was
torn in two and an earthquake struck and rocks were split asunder
(Matt. 27:51).
John
reports that because it was the day of preparation the Jewish
authorities did not want the bodies of the crucified left on the
crosses during the Sabbath (John 19:31). They asked that the legs
of the "criminals" be broken which they did for the two
thieves. Death on the cross was a long torturous process. Death
generally occurred not from loss of blood but by suffocation. If the
victims could no longer lift themselves up by their pierced
extremities they could not breath. Thus to break their legs, the
soldiers would cripple their victims ability to help themselves
breath and they would die more quickly. When the soldiers came to
Jesus he had already stopped breathing and they pierced His heart
with a spear to assure themselves that he was dead. Pilate was
surprised that Christ was already dead. Jesus probably succumbed due
to the severe lashing he received before the crucifixtion which
weakened Him to point he could barely walk due to pain and the loss
of blood . Yet in a case of sacred irony, like the Paschal Lamb, not
a bone was broken on this "Korban Pesach".
With
only a few hours of daylight left, as the butchered lambs for the
feast were taken from the temple to be roasted for the evening
ceremonial meal, Jesus' body was taken down and hastily placed in a
new tomb. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, members of the Jewish
council, the group that condemned Jesus, were moved to quickly deal
with his body. There was no time to return him to Bethlehem his
ancestral home or Nazareth his boyhood home. Instead a new tomb
outside the holy city, believed to be a few hundred yards from
Calvary, is where his body was laid to rest. Apparently unknown to
the women, Nicodemus, a wealthy resident of Jerusalem, brought 75
pounds of spices and burial linen in which they wrapped the body
(John 19:39). After seeing what must have seemed like Jesus' enemies
laying his body in the tomb, the women purposed to do their own
ritual of burial by preparing their own spices. So Luke tells us
that they left the tomb Friday night and prepared more spices for his
body and would return after the Sabbath to complete the burial
process (Luke 23:56). It was then when they found the tomb empty.
Luke
also reports that the disciples "rested on the Sabbath in
obedience to the commandments." (Luke 23:56). This means that
after the events of Good Friday all the disciples could do was gather
in confusion and grief and rest. Presumably they gathered in the
room that Jesus had helped them prepare for the Passover meal.
Instead of feasting on the Seder meal they now wept over the death
of their friend and leader. Surely as they grieved, as they feared
for their own lives, they began to make plans for a quick departure
from Jerusalem on Sunday the day after the Sabbath. On Saturday they
could hear the trumpets sounding in the Temple nearby announcing the
thanksgiving offerings sacrificed at the start of the Feast of
Unleavened Bread while thousands swarmed the temple for the
convocation which the disciples dare not attend out of fear of the
Jewish leaders and Roman authorities.
We
know at least for two disciples, one named Cleopas, an early escape
was made from the Holy City mid-morning Sunday the 16th of Nisan.
They were headed for the village of Emmaus, only seven miles from
Jerusalem (Luke 24:13). The women had reported that the tomb was
empty, but they did not stay in Jerusalem to investigate further.
This was the 2nd day of the feast, the day called "morrow after
the Sabbath" where the firstfruits of the spring barely crop are
cut, prepared and dedicated to the Lord (Leviticus 23:9-14). The
first sample of the crop is given to the Lord as a thank offering for
His provision in the wilderness and His provision in the promised
land. Jesus, who declared Himself to be the "bread of life",
now showed himself to the women, the 2 on the road, and then to the
rest of the disciples to be the firstfruit of the grave or as Paul
writes:
"But
Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those
who have fallen asleep." (1 Corinthians 15:20)
Jesus,
unbeknownst to most of the Holy City that year, had fulfilled all
that the Passover feast was meant to foreshadow. Jesus had
accomplished the ultimate deliverance of all people, everywhere, in
every age. Therefore, the church regularly confesses "Christ
the Passover is sacrificed for us".
In
summary, the chart below lists the days of the week and a brief
description of the events surrounding the days of holy week and the
Feast of Unleavened bread as they would have occurred in the year 33
A.D. Using the Gregorian Calendar (western calendar used by most of
the world today) the first Easter was April 3, 33 and Good Friday
April 1st. According to Acts 1:4 we know that Jesus visited the
disciples on several occasions in Jerusalem and the Galilee after
Easter Sunday. According to Acts 1: 3 Jesus' resurrection meetings
took place over forty days until he ascended into heaven on Thursday,
May 12, 33. Using this same calendar year, the second major
Jewish festival, the Feast of Pentecost began on the 6th of Siven or
Sunday May 22, 33. This feast is when the Jewish people would
return to Jerusalem in thanksgiving for the spring harvest 50 days
after the start of Passover. The Jewish nation would mark with a
daily ritualistic prayer and an offering of an "omer" of
grain each day from the first day of Passover to Pentecost. They
began the counting of days on the second day of Passover, Nisan 16,
the day Jesus rose. "Penta" means 50 from which the feast
derived its name. Unbeknownst to the Jews that year, they were
counting down to the birth of the church. Thus, Sunday May 22 was
the date the church was filled with the Spirit and sent out on
mission. It was probably from this time on that the church began
returning from their mission work and began gathering on Sundays, the
day of resurrection, for celebration, breaking of bread and worship.
Holy Week 33 A.D.
Nisan
week
day notes
8 Saturday "Great Sabbath" in synagogue, Passover instruction (no travel)
9 Sunday Jesus
stops at Mary & Martha's (6 days before Passover)
10 Monday
Triumphant Entrance late in day - day the lambs are selected
11 Tuesday
Jesus clears the Temple and curses the fig tree
12 Wednesday Fig
tree observed, observes widow in Temple, Mt Olives visit
Dinner
at Simon the Leper - Judas meets with Chief Priest
13 Thursday Day
of Preparation, Starts at sundown - Upper Room Dinner
14 Friday Jesus
arrest & trial - Lambs sacrifice at 12:30pm
Jesus
crucified & buried - Seder Meal at Sundown15 Saturday Special Sabbath "High Day" and Passover Convocation
No work or travel - Many sacrifices offered in temple
Chief Priest asks Pilate to post guards & secure tomb
16 Sunday 2nd
Day "Morrow after the Sabbath" - Cutting Barley Sheaf
Easter
- Jesus appears to women, 2 on road, 11 in upper room
17 Monday
3rd Day - Half Holy Days
18 Tuesday 4th
Day - Half Holy Days
19 Wednesday 5th
Day - Half Holy Days
20 Thursday 6th
Day - Half Holy Days
21 Friday 7th
and Last Day - Convocation & special sacrifices
The
gospel power and impact does not rest on precise accuracy of these
dates or that the events of holy week absolutely occurred in 33 A.D.
in this fashion. Yet logically, the coming together of the gospel
accounts and the calendar events, as suggested above helps bring
clarity and a deeper sense of historicity to the Biblical record and
may very well be the timeline for Holy Week.
